Christ 2.0: Tom Cruise

[g0zen]

I think more the ideas behind it are what makes it equally ridiculous. There's nothing more credible about water to wine or the resurrection compared to alien souls and jet liner spaceships.

[MarsKitten]

scientology hasn't done anything good for us so far,

OBJECTION!
It bilks the gulliable and weak minded out of their money and gives them purpose in life. Bilking the gulliable and weak minded out of their money... to give others purpose in life.

L. Ron Hubbard was onto something, something where people willingly give him money for nothing at all. If I was that completely immoral I would spend the next 10 years developing my own cult.

But i'm just going to be a lawyer instead. Why create a new system to steal money with people's permission, one already exsists.

[Vasteel]

Which Eastern religions would those be? Buddhism and Hinduism which believe in idol worship, reincarnation and karma?

Buddhism can be broadly divided into two major 'schools' (and this is a gross generalization): Theravada (secular) and Mahayana (what you are thinking of). Even in Mahayana traditions, the sorcerous element is not at the focus of the practitioner's daily life, in contrast to Western religions, which pretty much depend upon it for validation.

Also, reincarnation is a part of all of the Western religions. Answer that and stay fashionable.

I think more the ideas behind it are what makes it equally ridiculous. There's nothing more credible about water to wine or the resurrection compared to alien souls and jet liner spaceships.

This reminds me of a debate I just got into in an Abnormal Psych class. We had two cases studies where in one, a woman believed she was in direct, 2-way communication with God, and another where a dude believed he could kill people by touching them. The class's general consensus was case 2 is clearly crazy but case 1 was okay.

They got pissed at me when I asked why one absurd idea seemed any more plausible than the other. But not one could tell me why.

[icarusfall]

L. Ron Hubbard was onto something, something where people willingly give him money for nothing at all. If I was that completely immoral I would spend the next 10 years developing my own cult.

If you read some interviews with his sci-fi friends of the time, they'll tell you he was only half serious about the whole thing...

[MarsKitten]

SCIENTOLOGIST!
Seriously, that is one sucessful half serious venture then.

[Saint of Killers]

OBJECTION!
It bilks the gulliable and weak minded out of their money and gives them purpose in life. Bilking the gulliable and weak minded out of their money... to give others purpose in life.

L. Ron Hubbard was onto something, something where people willingly give him money for nothing at all. If I was that completely immoral I would spend the next 10 years developing my own cult.

But i'm just going to be a lawyer instead. Why create a new system to steal money with people's permission, one already exsists.

I'm guessing that lawyers have to work a hell of alot harder than cult leaders.

[burgundy]

Cult leaders don't have time to post on TNL.

[kingoffighters]

This reminds me of a debate I just got into in an Abnormal Psych class. We had two cases studies where in one, a woman believed she was in direct, 2-way communication with God, and another where a dude believed he could kill people by touching them. The class's general consensus was case 2 is clearly crazy but case 1 was okay.

They got pissed at me when I asked why one absurd idea seemed any more plausible than the other. But not one could tell me why.

I guess you can easily prove that case 2 is not true, thus he is crazy. Whereas case 1, it is much harder to disprove.

[rezo]

I guess you can easily prove that case 2 is not true

Unless the guy is against killing people. In which case it'd be as hard to prove as a 2-way communication with god. The class would have to assume he was ok and be very thankful that he wasn't making use of his magic death-touch.

[Space Pirate Roberts]

[...] demanded anyone who follows him question the validity of everything that he tells them. If Christianity had that kind of inherent skepticism we'd probably have avoided the Dark Ages.

The funny thing is, it does. There's a verse that basically says to consider every part of the bible critically and ignore it if it seems wrong... but of course every church in the history of the religion ignored it.